“Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.” (Ecc 9:15-16)

Like it or not, people pay attention to money. Poor folks, who may well be endowed with wisdom on occasion, are still despised and in general they are not listened to. Furthermore, too many Christians think poverty is a virtue and while you can certainly be virtuous and poor, poverty is no virtue. Let me encourage you again with the words of David, “Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.” (Psalm 35:27)

Our Father delights and has pleasure when we prosper. He does not delight in our misery and lack. He doesn’t live in misery and lack nor does He reserve that for His children. Now, follow with me here… If the poor have no voice and if God delights in our prosperity and if He loves it when we use our prosperity to affect the culture for good (remember Cornelius?), then it is perfectly appropriate for those of us called to the marketplace to make plans, strategize, pray and work diligently to succeed and prosper.

But why? We are very, very close to seeing the most challenging economic and geopolitical challenges in our lifetime. The media is the most powerful instrument on earth to shape opinion and control people. (Remember the election process?) Media is business and business takes money and money can buy media. Media will be a huge tool in shaping your opinion. Don’t think you are immune or that you won’t fall for their lies. It’s not the lies I am worried about. It’s the truths we are never told. You are going to have to get that from the Lord.

But I see the day, when folks like you and I actually live to take back the gates of commerce, use the profits to take back the gates of media and use that to win back and rightly inform the people God so greatly loves. That is why I feel an urgency to release our remaining inventory of the Taking Back The Gates conference where 11 highly successful Christian business leaders pass on the most salient wisdom they have as if you and I were their only heirs. When the CD’s and DVD’s first came out, they were sold for $166. Now while supplies last, you can save over 75% and get both sets for only $39. It’s that important! Click here for details and a short video clip.

I believe the root cause of stunted fruit or bad fruit in our life goes back to what we store up in our heart. The things we meditate on, ponder, consider, day dream about. Eventually those thoughts will come out in our words (out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks) and we tend to believe what comes out of our mouth (faith comes by hearing… Rom 10:17). Let me show you a practical business application of this last truth…

Most folks who have a product or service to sell, look for the opportunity to present their story to a prospect. Their unspoken but clearly understood hope is, that the prospect will believe their claims and purchase their goods. But there is a way to increase quite significantly the conversion from listening to purchasing. You must help the prospect find faith in your claims. While you may convert them with testimonials, convincing demonstration or just the sheer force of your persuasive personality, you can significantly increase your result by leading the prospect through a questioning process, the answers to which release the words from their own mouth that convince them of the truth of your claims.

People tend to believe less than 100% of what someone else says, especially a stranger who stands to benefit financially if they can get you to agree. But those same people tend to believe 100% of whatever comes out of their own mouth, so lead those folks to the conclusion you came to by taking them on the same journey, asking them the questions they need the answers to and let their own answers convince them.

Important Note: If at all possible, mark your calendars for September 4 – 6 and plan on joining me at the Kingdom Economic Summit in Austin, Texas where I will be speaking with Myles Munroe, Lance Wallnau, Os Hillman, Kent Humphreys, Rick Joyner and many other leaders in the Christian Marketplace movement. Many of the Kingdom’s leading generals are being brought together to release and impart instruction, wisdom and anointing for today’s marketplace leaders to experience a greater measure of wealth transfer for the purpose of building and advancing God’s Kingdom in the earth. Click here for details…

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

Did you know that God has riches hidden in secret places? And these are riches He is eager for you to possess. Am I saying that God wants you rich? I don’t know what God wants for you with respect to tangible riches. I don’t know your character, your calling or your capabilities. What I do know is that there are great riches hidden in secret places and the kind of riches I am speaking of cannot be seen with the eye.

Take for example the rainforest. People with limited vision see only with their natural eye and cut it down to obtain temporal, tangible riches. They sell the timber and create pasture land for cows. But people with great vision who have spent time in the secret place of God know that God made the systems that make the rainforest the most productive and fruitful system on the planet producing tremendous abundance out of relative scarcity.

In spending time with the Father, they learn the systems. They discover the ways of God. They obtain great wealth of wisdom as they inherit His heart for the created order and in the process they can be trusted with the power that wisdom gives them. It is the unseen riches that produce the visible riches. Most folks chase the visible, corruptible, temporal riches. Wise ones chase the unseen eternal riches and in apprehending them, have everything else they need.

I don’t know about you, but I have gotten very serious about “son training.” It’s the process of growing in Christ from little children unto sonship. That place where the Father trusts you with the keys to the car… OK, not the car, but the keys to the kingdom so to speak. One of the things that has helped thousands of business leaders mature, take on greater responsibility and handle wealth wisely has been a conference I hosted three years ago this month. Today, I am going to give every one of you an invitation to receive either the DVDs or CDs from that all day event FREE if you order the download version.

We gathered 11 of the most successful Christian business leaders to convene in Ft. Lauderdale and pass on the inheritance of their heart. It was simply riveting. I asked them to speak to us all as if we were their only heir and this was their last time to pass on business wisdom in a Biblical context. What they shared amounted to nothing less than “son training” for the marketplace. I know from some of the blog comments this week, that there are folks who don’t believe “sons” are called to the marketplace, but for the rest of us, this will put you well on the path to being a “son” in the marketplace, regardless of your gender!

People all the time ask us to give our materials away for free… Well this is as close as it gets, but it’s LIMITED TO THE FIRST 200. I suggest you check this out now and get your Free DVD or CD series while the offer stands. Don’t know if we will do this again.

The Tabernacle of Moses reveals three distinct levels of Christian living and those three levels are easily relatable to business. Cooperating with them and knowing how to flow with each level will dramatically impact your business.

The Outer Court is Level 1 and is about practices. It is the place where character and competence are formed. It is the place of preparation. It’s about functioning based on what you see, what you observe, what you can grasp based on your own acquired skills. I call it the place of the 30-fold increase. We have spoken a lot lately about outer court concepts. They include processes, systems, common sense practices and they are essential. Most people never progress past this level.

The Inner Court is Level 2 and is about principles. It is the place of strategy, where God opens His Word and by His Spirit reveals His Way of doing things. These are not natural strategies deduced with natural wisdom, but rather God inspired strategies derived from Godly wisdom. (See James 3:17 for details). Think 60-fold increase.

The Holy of Holies is the third level. It is about the POWER of God working on your behalf to accomplish what you could never do on your own, with any amount of wisdom. Accessing this power is possible, but it is not a game, nor is it something to be taken lightly. Think 100-fold increase. We need to operate on all three levels. Stay tuned as we develop this a little further during the week.

By the way, in case you missed it, we have offered the CDs of our seven-hour teaching with PowerPoint on this subject for FREE to the first 500 folks who download the series called, The RainCatcher’s Secret: 7 Ancient Paths to Wealth, Wisdom and the Wonder of God. Beat the rush. On Friday that offer goes out to hundreds of thousands of folks. Click here for details.

Let there be light: God said it - Light happened. We are still trying to figure out what it is and what it means to mankind. It causes photosynthesis, which in itself is a miracle of God. It makes life possible. Jesus said He was the light of the world. Why did God choose to start the creation process on day one with light? Why not the land and sea? Could He not see in the dark?

I don’t pretend to know the depths of God’s wisdom on that or any matter, but I do believe we can study this model of creation and glean life-changing truths that can be easily applied to business. To me, light enables vision and thus the first thing God built was the capacity for vision. Vision must therefore be important. I am not speaking of sight. Helen Keller said, “What a tragedy to have sight, but lack vision.”

Do you have a strategic vision for your life? For your business? Do you know what that looks like? I am not speaking of some snazzy poster you put up in the lobby of your business. I am speaking about a document that describes for you and then for your employees what the experience of being part of your company (or family) really means. It’s detailed, descriptive and moving. If it doesn’t move you, it won’t move anyone. If it doesn’t stimulate a reaction within you that makes you want to take action, then you still don’t have a clear vision.

Just like light causes a physical reaction in plants, so vision must inspire people to action. If it doesn’t, you probably have a trail of words leading nowhere important and no one will find their destiny following that!